Donhead St Mary Church and John G. Norris

     In the most recent posting I discussed the marriage record of James Norris and Eleanor Knype.  They were married in Donhead St Mary, Wiltshire, England in 1791.  Based upon baptismal records, they continued to live in Donhead St Mary Parish for about sixteen more years.   By my count Eleanor gave birth to twelve children between 1791 and 1807.  Several died in childhood but there are at least twelve records at Donhead St Mary.  Several more children were born in America.

   Wiltshire County is in the south-west England and Donhead St Mary is in the south-west portion of Wiltshire.   Donhead St Mary is about 30 miles north of Bournemouth and about 50 miles south-east of Bristol.

   Since so many family events occurred in this location, I needed to take a virtual trip.  Google Maps and a few internet searches found some needed information.  The church was started in the twelfth century and is still in use today.
   Another interesting connection is the name of my 3xGreat-Grandfather John Gilbert Norris.  His middle name (or middle initial) does not appear in the index of baptisms but appears on many subsequent documents.  The minister at Donhead St Mary around the time of John G Norris was Rev. Gilbert Jackson³.  John Norris was ordained many years later.

Donhead St Mary Church¹  Photo by Simon Burchell

Interior of Donhead St Mary¹ Photo by Simon Burchell

Interesting history of the area²

Link to current parish activities.

Additional Interior, Exterior and Stained Glass Pictures of Donhead St Mary

1. This file is licensed under Creative Commons  Attribution- Share Alike 3.0 Unported license Photo by Simon Burchell

2.   Jane Freeman and Janet H Stevenson, 'Parishes: Donhead St Mary,' in A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 13, South-West Wiltshire: Chalke and Dunworth Hundreds, ed. D A Crowley (London: Victoria County History, 1987), 138-155, accessed September 15, 2015, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol13/pp138-155
3.  "Assignment by Rev. Gilbert Jackson to Rev. William Lisle ..." 2015. 22 Sep. 2015 <http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/0ec324e2-e49e-49ba-a5b3-41fcefc5ed3f>

Eleanor Knype and James Norris

      James Norris and Eleanor Knype Norris are my 4xGreat-grandparents.  I first came across them when they were mentioned in a Union County History¹.  On a trip to Harrison County, Ohio, we visited The Harrison County Genealogical Society, which is located in The Historical Society's building in Cadiz, Ohio.  These societies had rescued a large number of documents from the dump, among which was the 1820 Naturalization Record for James Norris.

The body of that record reads:

        James B. Norris aged fifty years Born in the County of Wilshear [sic] , England & Parish of Dunhead [sic], Removed from that to Novoscota [sic] and from thence to New York, arrived at New York within The United States of America from Novo Scota [sic] on the twentieth day of May in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred & seventeen owing allegience to George the third King of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland and intending to settle in the State of Ohio hereby reports himself for the purpose of being admitted to the rights of Citizenship within the United States, and prays that a record may be made of the same

July Ten 1820   J B Norris

     Last weekend, I was able to track down some new birth and marriage records. (new to me)  I haven't really done much research across the Atlantic, primarily because I was busy filling in the holes in the USA portion my existing family tree.   Findmypast.com (a British genealogical website) had a free weekend access and so I decided to give it a try.   I didn't find any original records but I found transcriptions of a number of vital records.  Among them was the Marriage License Bond record for James Norris and Eleanor Knype of Donhead St Mary, Wiltshire, England.    It is sort of nice when records match. 

     

   

1.  Durant, Pliny A. The History of Union County, Ohio,. Chicago: W.H. Beers, 1883.

Becoming a Citizen in 1820 Harrison County, Ohio

Harrison County Courthouse, Cadiz, Ohio

     A Union County, Ohio history pointed me towards some ancestors who might have lived in Harrison County. So when we were visiting relatives in Ohio, we arranged a side trip to coincide with a day when the Harrison County Genealogical Society was open.  After a drive through rural southeastern Ohio, with a stop at a cemetery, we arrived in Cadiz. I was blown away with the original documents that were filed with the genealogical society.  Evidently the local government had thrown many original documents in the dump but the society members rescued these papers.  Holding pages that were written between 1820 and 1850 was an experience.
     One of the documents was a request for citizenship by James B. Norris. The document was loaded with important genealogical information. Below is an image of the page with a transcription.

State of Ohio
Harrison County

To the Honourable the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas in and for the County of Harrison and the State of Ohio.   
Now Sitting
 James B. Norris aged fifty years Born in the County of Wilshear (Wiltshire?), England & Parish of Dunhead, Removed from that to Novoscota [sic] and from thence to New York, arrived at New York within The United States of America from Novo Scota on the twentieth day of May in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred & seventeen owing allegience to George the third King of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland and intending to settle in the State of Ohio hereby reports himself for the purpose of being admitted to the rights of Citizenship within the United States, and prays that a record may be made of the same

July Ten 1820    J B Norris

     Finding this type of document certainly proves that local societies and archives are an essential resource for researchers.  It is also a shame when agencies (governmental or otherwise) are unable to store documents and artifacts with historical value.